BluesChronicle: Make sure you see the replays of AVB’s face when that equaliser went in: I have never seen a man look more relieved in my life.

The press reports

The Guardian, Stuart James: “Good fortune was smiling on Chelsea, although the point that was salvaged in stoppage time came at a cost. Trailing to Scott Sinclair’s wonderful first-half goal and down to 10 men after Ashley Cole picked up a second yellow card for a lunge on Nathan Dyer, Chelsea looked devoid of ideas and were on the brink of a sixth league defeat of the season until José Bosingwa’s cross deflected off Neil Taylor in the second minute of stoppage time to leave Michel Vorm stranded.”

The Daily Telegraph, Jeremy Wilson: “It was only a 90-minute snapshot of a 38-game Premier League season but, on this evidence, Roman Abramovich selected the wrong Jose Mourinho protégé. Yes, Chelsea snatched a deflected equaliser but the dominant theme of another uplifting occasion at the Liberty Stadium was Swansea’s wonderfully slick passing football.”

The Official Chelsea FC Website: “In the end a draw was probably a fair result, with the Blues dominating possession in the second half. Scott Sinclair’s impressive strike had given the home side a half-time lead, but as the game appeared to be out of reach following Ashley Cole’s 85th minute red card, Jose Bosingwa proved the unlikely hero, firing in a shot with almost the last kick of the game that was deflected in to send the travelling hordes into a frenzy behind the goal.”

Almost total possession in the 2nd half and hardly a worthwhile shot/chance to remember. Fu*k me, how BAD was Malouda?? I almost cried when Romeu came off for Essien. AVB has to take total blame for the likes of Malouda (*insert 4 or 5 others here as required*) still being at the club. TWO transfer windows wasted.

If Roman wants a high-pressure, attractive passing game then he could do worse than bring Brendan Rodgers back. Or just buy Swansea City FC. They were everything we are not. Fresh, inventive, quick, motivated. We are actually going backwards under AVB (is he the ghost of Bobby Campbell?) and are 4th courtesy only of Liverpool’s inability to win PL games @ Anfield, and the worst Le Arse’ side in 10 years.

According to AVB, a 7 point gap is ‘nothing’ in this league. That’s ok then.

Seriously, what fucking planet is he on? Do we look in the least bit capable of turning round a one point deficit, let alone 7? Do we fuck. I’m sick and tired of hearing about how good other teams are. Just makes us sound surprised that they dare to compete with us.

AVB has not, to my knowledge, ever accepted he’s made a mistake. His ego is incredible. He tells us about this 3 year project, yet does nothing to change the personnel he picks each week. If someone’s not part of your long term plans (Malouda etc) then pick someone else. He had time in the summer to sign some of he people he wanted, and there must have been some chance of new faces in January that he wanted (Kev The Brown clearly is not one…) What’s the point in having signed Cahill? 3 games spent on the bench. A great return on our £7m.

Granted, it’s not just the manager, the players have to shoulder some responsibility. Sturridge has disappeared so far up his own arse I doubt he’ll ever re-appear. A handful of goals and he got lost in his own hype. Torres is trying, but failing. I guess Malouda and Bosingwa must resemble Messi in training to warrant their selections. The sides not being picked on form. It can’t be. Or is AVB that myopic?

Oh dear, deservedly last on MOTD running order for 2nd EPL week in a row.

From the longer version highlights on Sky it looked the proverbial game of two halves as far as possession goes with not many memorable efforts on goal from either side, apart from our multiple blocks by defenders after Cech’s rush of blood to the head.

I don’t see many mentions of goal attempts in the tweets above either, though in the damned lies department I see the Beeb website report claims we had 10 attempts on target and 10 off, to Swansea’s 5 and 2 respectively.

The most worrying thing for me is that we don’t seem to have changed a single bit. Not better, not worse, just a stagnant pile of can’t-be-arsed-ness….are the players starting to see that the emperor has no clothes and are demotivated accordingly? Or is AVB just not up to the task?
I’m not a knee-jerk type but I am certainly wondering if Roman has made yet another cock-up a la Big Phil. It doesn’t seem as though AVB is the tactical intellectual he’s made out to be – and if I have to hear more post-loss drivel from him I will headbutt my TV.
I will. I’ll do it. I’m mad like that.

And agreeing with Fiftee, what the hell was the point of the Cahill purchase? Is he resisting the assimilation? Has he not been re-educated enough? I cannot believe that Bosingwa does anything at RB in training better than Ivanovic.
I do agree that a new manager should be given time but shouldn’t there at least be flashes of what is to come or will we be shit until his project is finished, and we are unveiled (from one game to the next) as the deserving heirs of Barcelona?

Few months ago there were calls for reverting back to defending deep like last year, because at least the players knew the old system and were comfortable with it, and now we are playing like it’s the ‘difficult moment’ once again and people complain about lack of change. Incredible.

Too many of our players meditate on the ball and stroll back to defend. There is no urgency, and if the players are too old to speed up their game, or are not willing to work for the manager they should be sold or benched.Changing manager clearly isn’t working…

I don’t know who to blame, seriously don’t. From one side we have Flo and Boss who are inept beyond any level and from the other side AVB who doesn’t want to recognize it (or can’t?). The purchase in mind of many around here was suppose to pave way to Ivanovich to play at RB. The return of Essien would bolster our midfield, but instead of it wee these two lazy buggers on the pitch and Cahill and Essien on the bench. Strange very strange.

They didn’t deal with Swansea’s pressing early on. Went short and got hemmed in. They didn’t look for someone in space upfield. It just created more pressure.

Gave the ball away and were tackled far too easily.

Once they had the possession and applied pressure there was very little incisive play.

By now you would hope that there would be some cohesion in the various groups that make up the team. There are no twos and threes anticipating and looking for each other under pressure either going forward or defending. That’s the bit I don’t get. Players might be on form or playing poorly but there should be a sense of understanding starting to spread through the side.

I thought Malouda and Mereiles were particularly guilty of giving the ball away too easily.

No one seems to be on Mata’s wave length.

It was another game where Cole struggled against a tricky winger. His form really seems to have dipped. You could see he was going to get himself in trouble.

Fair play to Sinclair for getting his goal but generally he didn’t make the sort of impression Dyer did. Is that because Bosingwa handled him well? If he did he wont get the credit.

Difficult to see where the spark will come from, but I’ll keep hoping.

As to the transfer window, there seems to have been an awful lot of faith placed in big changes this January. But I’m not sure the sort of season changing buys were out there for a reasonable price.

It’s really about getting the best out of what they have. And as individuals there is surely enough talent to make some progress.

AVB has his work cut out, This season there seems to be greater parity in the league from week to week. Little room for error or experiment. Hence his decision to stay with established defenders over Cahill. A lot don’t like that but I can understand it.

Poor first half, good second. Plenty of possession but chuff all cutting edge. Plenty of crosses from Malouda and Bosingwa (when is a cross inaccurate – when it finds a defender, or when there is no-one there to meet it?). Mata has created more chances than any other player in the PL this season, including Silva, yet apparently Torres isn’t getting the service.

AVB is not perfect, but how much longer is the £50m millstone going to have excuses made for him? We’ve tried, he’s failed. Unless there is some miraculous recovery in the next couple of months, goodbye in the summer, please, for everyone’s sake. It’s becoming pitiful to watch.

Interesting to note that the player who made the most passes on the pitch (with a fair chunk of them in the final third) last night was Bosingwa. Almost twice as many as Cole, who also misplaced more.

The mob bayed for Cahill. The defence – so poor in the nearly months of the season – is playing deeper, is more settled, Luiz is vastly improved and has conceded just twice in six games this year. And yet the manager gets slated for not changing it?

Sturridge – not really that much better than Kalou, is he, if we’re brutally honest? Has looked shit for 6 weeks.

Interesting stat that cropped up on Twitter last night about the age ranges in our squad and on the fringes / reserves – majority under 20, fair few over 30 but very few between 24-28 (can’t remember the exact numbers). Squad is certainly decent, but maybe lacks overall balance and depth in some areas.

I seem to remember reading that Carlo had an issue with just that problem. Youngsters too young and not PL ready, no players in the mid 20’s looking to get themseleves established to pressure the older players and freshen up the play.

changing the manager will only work if an intellectually fit manager and board is appointed,the very symptoms exhibited by AVB & Di Matteo border insanity,from team selections,formations, substitutions etc. player performance can be influenced by the managers ideologies, i do not think the players have any pride playing for AVB .Jose’s protege in his actuality resembles the jackAss-in-wenger both in stubbornness and face.The “youth” will come good and a trophy will be won with a philosophical change in our footballing style.Come on !sack the Idiot he wont win anything in a billion years this manager sucks to death

Don’t have a particular problem with Cahill not starting in general as he’ll get games, but I would like to see anybody other Bosingwa at RB. He makes far too many elementary defensive mistakes and is so weak in the air, his poor headers or losing his man at the far post has probably cost us more points than any other single factor (other than Ramires’s poor finishing one on one). He gets a lot of the ball, but doesn’t do a great deal with it.
Cole, like Mata, is knackered – been completely over-played. Ridiculous. Sturridge too for that matter. These players should not be starting every single week. Torres and Malouda shouldn’t be starting at all.No idea really where to begin with the problems, it just looks like a hotchpotch of a side, defensively sound more or less, but incoherent and unimaginative going forward, with such a stodgy, ponderous midfield no matter who the personnel (hopefully the idea this is all the fault of Terry, Lampard, Mikel and Drogba has now been put to rest). Up front Sturridge and Torres look like they do not get on and appear to be dragging each other – and Mata – down. But we don’t have any options right now.The problem is that now we have some injuries and African Cup we can’t really experiment – AVB completely missed the chance to do that when he had a full squad to play with, and that’s one of the most frustrating things about his reign so far. I don’t know where we are going from here. The team could well rouse themselves for United, but it’s not going to last, and CL football is very uncertain. How will that effect our recruitment plans this summer? Well, it’s certainly not going to help our revenue.

Not much to add really to what has already been said except that I am now more depressed than I was before we performed like a bunch of cunts last night. Swansea were pretty good. But if you believe AVB everyone we’ve played this season has played pretty fucking brilliantly against us. Fuck knows what that’s going to do to his oppo scouting reports for next year.

Ok some thoughts that might lack a little cohesion.

No one in our midfield can orchestrate a game. Rami and Lamps are great but they just aren’t the same sort of player as a Xavi/Iniesta/Modric. Nobody in our midgield is capable of fulfilling that role. At the moment David Luiz/Mata is probably the probably the closest thing we have but neither are playing in midfield. Without a better balance in the middle we will continue to struggle to create. Consider the way that Modric allows Bale/Lennon/Adebayor/VDV to create and dominate in the final third. And compare the way our midfielders perform in similar situations.

I can’t understand the argument “that the players just weren’t out there to sign in this window at the right prices”. We offered £16.5million for Willian (apparently) then packed it in citing some old bollocks about CL ineligibility. I don’t know what we are expecting to spend. There are more teams with big money to spend now (see Aguero, Pastore for evidence). No one will sell us their best player for £15million anymore. Especially seeing as we paid £50million for a chap who has scored only marginally more PL goals than me since he signed. We paid £25million for DL this time last year. Did we really think Lille would sell Hazard on the cheap? And more importantly do we really think he’ll be any cheaper in June. The major problem with our current transfer policy is that it’s a bit late. Didier will be 40 years old by the time Romelu Lukaku is 24. All these fellas for the future (Courtois, KdB, Lukaku, Piazon) are obviously not considered suitable first team regs yet. So assuming they make the grade (not guaranteed) the future looks ok. Unfortunately the present doesn’t. Even more unfortunately AVB has now had two transfer windows to re-shape his first-team. I would say that he hasn’t achieved that and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to. Maybe in private he feels differently but he doesn’t give much cause for optimism. I really don’t know what I’m going to do if the next window comes and goes and we’re still looking at a team sheet featuring the same old names.

Interesting to see how Bertrand copes on Sunday. I’m getting ahead of myself here though. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Bosingwa or Ferreira start at LB. If that happens it will be an admission that AVB doesn’t have any faith in Bert. In which case we ought to be back in for Perreira in June. If Bert isn’t considered better than Bos or Paulo at RB now he never will be. So do something about it. We’re obviously short in that position. We’ll see anyway.

On a more hopeful note. Next year really ought to see change. You don’t get to the position AVB has at the age he has if you aren’t able to learn and adapt reasonably well. He knows RA won’t accept this year’s performance again next year. No chance. This year is as good as over for us. AVB and the team need to start to look to use this time to make serious progress for next year.

You’re right when you say our tranasfer policy seems to have left a hole in the age range of the squad. Chopping and changing managers hasn’t helped. But you haven’t convinced me that the answers to our problems were there in the January window. PSV were restocking having appointed Ancelotti but how many major clubs were on the move?

We don’t get clubs best players cheap. And that’s been part of the problem. Spotting talent and getting it at the right price is something Chelsea have to start doing properly. There are beasts with bigger chequebooks now roving the jungle. And that’s not a bad thing if the club turn it to advantage. Agents and clubs have to know Chelsea will walk away. That way there can be a proper negotiation.

The club needs to buy players to play football for the team, to fulfil a role. Enough of the vanity buys. The buys that make money for all sorts of characters in the shadows.

It is difficult to buy a player in January from abroad and expect a major impact let alone several at the same time. Early in the summer break is the right time. Get a good pre-season and set the squad up.

Anelka worked. Cahill may work. They were known entities with an EPL track record.

The staff and team have to make it work from now to the end of the season and then blow it up if they want to. But lets keep a balance in the team between youth and experience when they do.

I don’t know what the reasons are, whether blowing 75m last January on 2 players, one of whom is starting to get to grips with it and one who looks a washout has made them rein it in, but yes two windows have passed and they’ve basically got Mata, Mereiles and Cahill for the first team, with Romeu a bonus who looks up to it. They shifted out Zhirkov, Anelka and Alex. A cast of thousands wander the globe on loan.

Mata is a success I think, Mereiles is a decent squad player, though he’s struggled of late. Cahill has just got here.

Decent buys I think. They will buy a few in the summer I’m sure. But I don’t think they’re chasing the “marquee names” with quite the intensity they once did.

Indeed part of the attraction of AVB may have been the expectation that he could be build a successful team without a stream of stellar names.

I don’t mind us not signing anyone and fully accept that we weren’t ever going to sign a player like, say Di Maria in January. I think we would’ve signed Hazard but didn’t want to risk upsetting Lille and potentially souring a deal that should get done in June.

I do struggle with AVBs public comments though. They don’t seem to always make a great of sense and there never seems to be any explanation. Why say “Willian is a very interesting player” but then go on to say but it’s not going to happen because of CL eligibility, work permit and price? Why apparently (and we never refuted Shaktar’s claim) bid £16.5million for him then? Surely they knew before they bid that he was cup-tied and not guaranteed a work permit. Common-sense could’ve told them that Shaktar wouldn’t sell the best player in their league for £4million more than they bought him for when he was unproven.

I don’t think AVB has done anything massively wrong and see this season as a little like Mancini’s first at City. Sometimes you can see where it’s all leading, sometimes you’re left scratching your head. I think we’re maybe 3 or 4 first-teamers away from a great side.

LB and RB not necessarily essential if Branners stays fit and you can live with Bosingwa as back up and Ash stays fit and Bertrand can prove himself capable at this level.

Could be that Torres has to go as part of a swap deal for a striker (Cavani/Llorente). Not sure about that one. Could be harsh on the lad if he is shipped out as we start to build a side that might actually create a chance or two for him. Interestingly I have heard on more than one occasion that Fernando is only as good as the team he is playing in. Which is a true for all players to some extent but the point is he isn’t a Drogba or a Tevez. He’ll never take a game by the scruff of the neck and create something by force of will. He just isn’t that type of player. So when Liverpool were going well he thrived. When they struggled, he struggled (injuries didn’t help to be fair). I have seen this line of argument elsewhere. It’s hard to judge this at Chelsea as he hasn’t really been in the team at a time when we’ve really thrived. We haven’t looked right in all the time he has been with us (I’m not apportioning blame). It’s important to remember RA splashed £50million on him last year because we looked washed-up before x-mas and had blown a 15-point (if memory serves) lead.

Anyway onwards and upwards. Arsenal could only draw. Now we have to worry about being ousted from our CL spot by SportsDirect United F.C

Mancini is no great example, he’s a very average coach. Given the investment he’s had, City should be ten points clear. As a manager, he scores about par. Ferguson, by contrast, probably adds an extra 10-15 points per season on the squad’s natural level. Jose similar.
AVB is about -5.

I couldn’t help wonder if age is catching up with Lord Ferg at last, while watching the Cup game v the Scousers at the weekend.

At the risk of starting another lip-reading controversy it appeared that after both the Scousers’ opening goal [which was a bit of a goalmouth scramble admittedly] and after Park’s equaliser he turned to Phelan and asked “Who scored?”. Is his eyesight genuinely not what it was [as opposed to Wenger-style blindness], perhaps.

What with ‘Arry admitting to being illiterate and their teams lying 2nd and 3rd currently perhaps our suits have got a point with their any old fool can be a manager attitude 😉

Well I think the Mancini comparison does stand up to some extent. Last year questions were being asked about his ability to fulfil City’s enormous ambition. This season I would say he has answered them. Questions were asked about his defensive “Serie A” style tactics. This season he has answered those questions emphatically.

I’m not sure how you scientifically judge Mancini a “par” coach. They’re (joint) top of the league and their current points total is the highest ever at this stage of the PL. If Fergie or Jose were in charge of City this year they’d have to win close to every single game to prove Pete’s assertion. I know Ferguson is matching City with an arguably weaker squad. That doesn’t make it scientific though. If Mancini had had 25 years of complete control as manager then perhaps we could start to compare.

While we are talking about City/Mancini I see he is talking up Eden Hazard’s “amazing abilities”. Which probably means a bid for him in the summer. Think Aguero. We could be watching him playing brilliantly in the PL next year. Probably for City. We could very well rue the decision to sit on our hands this January when we are forced to sign a player who is second-best because we can’t afford to get into a bidding war with City.

Also I would not be able to convince you that we could’ve made some good signings in January because I’m not sure it was possible and i’m no expert/scout. I still think we could’ve done something to freshen up our attack. Having tightened the defence up we look pretty clueless going forward. Why not sign Krasic on loan to take the pressure off of Mata or give him chance to play more centrally. That could’ve been a sensible deal for us. Maybe we could’ve convinced City to let us have Tevez on loan. We could afford to pay his wages, we’re not a direct threat for the PL now and if he did well his value would be increased for them in June. A little off the wall but not beyond the realms of possibility. We could’ve agreed to let them recall him anytime (if we started to close the gap too much, say).

After clocking up over 1000 mins without scoring, Fernando Torres was last night backed by his manager.

“If we keep creating chances he will score”

Creating chances. After last night’s performance? Poor fucker’s never going to score for us again.

I wouldn’t be surprised if business was done on Torres in June. AVB is already talking about whether Didier will be tired or not when he’s finished representing Ivory Coast. So no need to wonder who he rates out of the two. If the boss doesn’t rate Torres do we think that he’ll persist with him next season. I can’t see it myself. I don’t know what to think of Torres. He rarely seems to get a clear-cut chance and it’s difficult to assess whether that is because we’re shit, he’s shit, he’s unlucky or a deadly combination of all three. He doesn’t seem to be able to make things happen for himself and he often looks like he is running through quicksand (a la Sheva). I can’t remember seeing him look fast or strong or imposing. Maybe I’m doing him a disservice. His game has always been based on goals and finishing.

Not sure why everyone is freaking out so much about the draw at Swansea.

We are clearly a squad on decline and have been since we blew a 15 point lead under CA. We are not going to win the PL this season, our only target is making sure we qualify for CL next season. We aren’t going to win any silverware in the cups either … suck it up and move on.

We are in transition and this can take a few seasons. Transition to what, no-one can tell. Will we ever dominate like we did under JM and for one season under CA … maybe, but unlikely. The league is much stronger then ever before.

I also don’t buy into this philosophy of “buy hazard for 40 mill or buy Neymer for 50 mill” etc. Those days of being the only big spenders are behind us … suck it up and move on.

Sack AVB? He is clueless? Please … firstly who would you replace him with and give the guy at least until the middle of his third season before judging his squad building skills or the team sheet he CAN put out.

Look at spurs as a model that is realistic and pragmatic. They have built a solid squad of no superstars, but team players and have bought with real intelligence. Creative midfielders, strong defensive midfielders, pacey and skilful wingers. Strong CB’s and several decent strikers. This is the type of team that AVB can build if given time.

Let’s be thankful that we are even debating whether we will win the CL or not. Remember that not so long ago we were mid-table and had no hope of winning anything.

So, just keep the Arse and the Pool at bay, take 4th spot and let AVB show us what he can do in the summer. Give him next season to fine tune, while making sure we still qualify for CL football. Then … he fine tunes with his final purchases, has the squad he wants and we see what he can really do, with the team he has built, not inherited.

Patience is key for chelsea now more then ever. Rash decisions have cost us dearly in the past (Yes … I’m talking about sacking TSO!!)

Personally I’m not freaking out about the draw at Swansea, more concerned about the difficulty we have beating anyone at all. Even Portsmouth was a struggle until the last 5 minutes.

We ve never been the only big spenders. We’ve never replaced the quality that was brought into the squad circa TSO and has gone/faded (Ashley Cole, Robben, Essien, Duff, Makele, Drogba).

There are no easy answers. Certainly not sacking AVB. Wouldn’t matter who was in charge.

We don’t want to use Spurs as a model I don’t think. Half a good season and a couple of outstanding players is not what RA is trying to achieve at Chelsea. We had achieved more before RA took over than Spurs have in the last fifteen years. I’d be extremely wary of using them as a model. If Bale or Modric go they will struggle to replace them on the cheap. The strong central defenders comment might be going a bit far too. One of their decent strikers has been borrowed. Who are the others? Jermaine Defoe and?

Nobody is debating whether we will win the CL surely? I’m debating whether we will get past Birmingham in the FA Cup (will give us a chance to have a closer look at Nathan Redmond, who could be an exciting prospect).

I can well remember when we were mid-table but I d rather not dwell on it. We were a shit side then. I don’t fancy going back to the days of watching Robert Fleck or Mick Harford personally. I was happy at the time though. At least we weren’t in Division 2. Nearly 10 years of CL football, 3 PL titles and a billion pounds spent will raise expectations.

I can’t agree about Hazard. We aren’t going to go out and buy players for £15-20million that are capable of winning the PL anymore. Those days are over. We are extremely unlikely to just unearth a Gareth Bale in the reserves at Wycombe. We have underinvested in the squad for a few years. Even going back to signing players like Sidwell and Ben-Haim. Torres represents our major investment in the squad. And he is just one player. Who’d be on the bench if Didier wasn’t playing in an amateur football tournament in EG and Gabon. We’ve just payed £8-9million for KdB and the general consensus is that he won’t be ready to play for us until the year after next. Of course Lille are going to want £35 million for Hazard. He is being watched by most of the top teams in Europe. Would you rather he went to City, Madrid or Barca and became another Ronaldinho, Ronaldo or Messi? We will need to make one or two big signings. As long as they’re young enough I don’t have a problem. Forget about Neymar. More chance of me signing for Chelsea. Lucas Moura yes. Neymar no chance.

I agree with you in principal. Give the manager time to get the squad he wants and then we’ll see. But of course supporters will get frustrated when we seem to be getting worse and AVB keeps banging on about “the quality we have in the squad”. When most people could quickly identify the major areas that need looking at. And he has now had two windows to look at them. It’s no good saying now he hasn’t had chance to replace Bosingwa (popular example) because he has had plenty of opportunity. He hasn’t replaced him so we can assume that he regards him as being a world-class right back and not a problem. A lot of people would disagree. This is where people will begin to question the managers judgement (rightly or wrongly).

Patience – now there’s a quality not many Chelsea fans are renowned for exhibiting these days!

Basically if each of the long string of new managers doesn’t wave his magic wand like TSO did and bring instant success the “off with his head” impetus starts rapidly and is fed by the actions of the suits.

I share the disappointment at the stop-start nature of any progress this season, but now might be a good time to reflect that we are unbeaten in 6 games in this calendar year with only 2 goals conceded, we are still in 4th by 3 points and with “only” Birmingham and Napoli between us and the Quarter Finals of FA Cup and CL.

It’s tough to admit, but we’re faced with these post-game disappointment feelings for the rest of the season. Things aren’t going to magically change and the rest of the season is going to be fairly horrible.

The question is (and I’m assuming we’re not going to be stupid enough to ditch him in the summer), exactly how is he going to change it? I’ve seen nothing so far to indicate his plans. I’m just massively confused. And equally concerned.

Yeah constantly banging on about the “excellent quality in the squad” while they keep looking like shit doesn’t make me feel great. But then again I can’t ever remember a manager saying “what do expect me to do with that bunch of wankers?” “Christ I’ll be glad to sell that fucker…(insert preferred player name)”. Although that would make for a more interesting post-match interview. We’ll just have to wait and see what AVB does next. He seems to have ironed out the defending a bit. If he can get us looking more fluid and creative with this group of players it would bode well for next year when hopefully he’ll bring in four top quality players.

Possibly, there again you might also point the figure at his legal adviser geniuses who apparently argued for the delayed date for the case because it would be “difficult” for witnesses to have the time to appear in court earlier.

Really? What did they expect to happen by dragging it out till after the Euros?

That’s the crucial thing really, put the FA in a very difficult position. I’m not up in arms about it, as whether he is innocent or not, a lot of professions would simply suspend somebody with that sort of charge hanging over them. If FA had done same at onset, we might have had a verdict by now.

Have to say I really can’t get as excited as the CFC community at large has; Twitter has gone bloody mental. Bit of a botch job, but thus it ever was.

Elsewhere, and potentially more importantly, the judgement on the landlady who showed PL games in her pub in Portsmouth by using decoder cards from abroad is being read in court; main point so far is that:

This is one of those classic situations where the longer it goes on the more convinced you become that you’re probably the only person in the world who isn’t in on the real deal.

A couple of things puzzle me. One is the length of time this took to get to the Magistrates. A public order offence? They were hanging people days after the riots for possession of a bottle of water, job done case closed.

Why the length of investigation for what is in the end a straightforward case. What did he say? If no one heard him, then how is it a public order offence? (if a tree falls in the forest etc. etc.) If players and the ref heard him what did they hear? Is there a clear visual record of the complete incident where everything he said can be viewed by a lip reader to the level required for criminal prosecution (I assume there is some form of standard). Is that visual record reliable or has it been tampered with?

Now how has that taken so long to sort out?

The FA are coming in for stick but they were investigating and had to stop once it became a prosecution, so I tend to agree they were left with no where to go once the case went beyond the Euros.

Unlike the Suarez case, this hinges not on a complaint by a player but a complaint from a member of the public. Who was that and what is the basis of their complaint. Did they hear something or thought they saw something in the telly? Some time passed between the incident and the charging. How long before a complaint was made? Does Terry know the identity of the complainant.

Am I right in thinking that an accused should generally know their accuser as a fairly basic tenet of the legal process? Shouldn’t we know unless there is a very good reason why not?

Am I wrong in thinking that Ferdinand did not make a complaint after the game? Why? Is this a regular occurrence on the pitch and are players dissuaded from complaining despite all the campaigns.

If (and I mean if) a person was known to hold unsavoury views, is it possible that both club and country would have persisted in making him a central figure? What would that say about both organisations?

As you and BBD have pointed out, did the legal team not appreciate that a delay past the Euro’s would exacerbate the situation? People step down or are suspended from all sorts of positions (teachers, social workers etc.) when serious allegations are made, without losing presumption of innocence. Terry can continue tp play football, but might it not have been sensible to have perhaps offered to stand down from the captaincy right at the start, once it was obvious this was going to drag on.

I fear that the elongated nature of all this is going to make for a very sour few months, with Twitter being used by parties to stoke up the fires. If there is a dark undercurrent in football’s professional dressing rooms, then we wont hear anything starightforward and factual ’til this trial is over. It’ll all be rumour and whispers.

Or may be they convinced that Terry did say it hence postponed the hearing for after Euro, hence they won’t have to expel him from the national team at least?
There are too many questions and too many “if’s” in this fucked up case!

mancini did a good steady job last year making City hard to beat/used to winning, and had stellar start this campaign but I think is barely achieving the minimum you’d expect with that squad in this very weak league. out the CL with a whimper, out the FA cup after insipid derby performance and easily beaten over two legs by v average Liverpool. level on points with a mediocre – and injury-plagued – united.
it hardly compares with Chelsea 04-08 or United 06-08, and with the amount of investment they have made, that’s the level they should be aiming.
a city team set up by Mancini always look beatable – we saw how much more JM could get out of his Inter team and think it would be the same here. He’s not a bad manager, just not a particularly great one. i wouldm’t be clamouring to get him at the bridge, for instance.

Sweet. Just Rooney, Nani, Cleverly and Ashley Young back for Man U this weekend to face our JT-and-Ashley-less back 4.

Saving grace could be that De Gea will play. Although that means he’ll probably have a ‘Yashin’ (never watched Lev play, but I understand he was handy, hence the label I used). Most keepers tend to have stormers at the Bridge. Well, the away ones anyway. Or is it just that we’re pony in front of goal?

Either way, he’ll be amazing, and then utterly shit for the rest of the season, as seems to be the way for us. Meh.

Some very accurate observations, BB, the legal system does seem to be a law unto itself.

I’m far from qualified to understand as to why something which might appear trivial to a lot of people, has even come to a court case on the basis of some footage posted on the net. I assume that the complaint was made by the member of the public from veiwing said footage, and not actually hearing JT say it.

And if we assume the lip reading is accurate, we certainly don’t know the context in which it was said.

Just an observation on our card count so far this season. If I recall correctly, didn’t we come out on top of the fair play league last time out?
Just wondering what’s changed with regard us having more cards than a Vegas casino this season.

Are officials just clamping down on tackling in general/or us, or is AVB’s approach and instructions to our players, to be more aggressive?

There’s no doubting CA’s calmer demenour might have worn off on our players last year, but if the current trend continues, we’re going to have key players missing for lots more key games.

Question of The Day: How much longer can Martin Samuel bear working for the Daily Wail?

Bizarre looking at the sports pages of the hard copy edition this morning [as I do on Saturdays] which is awash with pages of anti-Terry invective from Matt Lawton and Des Kelly with Samuel’s 3-column article of common sense buried in its midsts:

It is not that he didn’t help with it, did he? Selling tours around SB, shagging Wayne Bridge girlfriend, allegedly racially abusing another player. JT is not exactly innocent Cinderella. Too much of controversy surrounding this guy.

I didn’t say he was (excuse the pun) whiter than white, but as Mark pointed out an EX girlfriend, who dumped Bridge for his alleged infidelities, so WB can hardly take the moral high ground.

And considering Ryan Giggs who got a much easier press in comparison for shagging his brothers wife, which really is the lowest of the low. It just shows the media’s agenda when it comes to all things JT.

I am merely saying that JT helped himself with all this crap. Giggs, Gerrard there may be more they all did something similar. The reason why people treated JT in this way, may be because there were lot of expectations from JT, although may be I am wrong and it is because we surrounded by bunch bigots and haters.

An accident in a Met Police area, Surrey Police round to JT’s in the early hours of the morning.

June 2004, a Friday early evening in Hackney, a man in a Range Rover drove out of a side road, took me off my motor bike and left me with a broken leg that required a pin from knee to ankle.

He stopped for a moment then sped off. He knew he’d hit me. His number plate was taken. Several witnesses all confirmed it was completely his fault.

After a week I came out of hospital. A letter from the police. It was a customer satisfaction survey about how they had reacted to the incident.

When I rang to enquire what was happening regarding the driver, I was informed that they had written to the owner requesting confirmation as to who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident. The owner had 3 weeks to answer. The registered owner was in Bishops Stortford (Essex Police). They didn’t seem to understand my confusion as to how someone could leg it from the scene of a relatively serious accident and no one was giving them a knock on the door.

It transpired the guy had sold the car weeks earlier to someone living in a bedsit in Hackney. By the time the local police had knocked a couple of times he had skipped somewhere else.

Now I’m not looking for symapthy. What I’m wondering is, which is the standard police procedure?

One incident a slow speed accident in a crush where the driver may not even have realised what happened. The other blatant piss poor driving and leaving the scene.

The quick inter constabulary co-operation in one case the form ticking approach in the second.

In both cases the victim was a no-mark. And I’m guessing my experience is probably the more usual.

Go figure.

And as to the alleged affair – don’t forget the apologies that followed.

To
bluebayou,
I am sorry to hear about this accident. However, yes you right, when it comes to the car of JT there is a good chance for police to have a PR, no matter what happened there. In your case they didn’t feel this way, unfortunately. (don’t get me wrong I am not supporting it, I merely trying to explain it). Of course we are talking about double standards there, no doubt at all!!!

The other thing with regards Ryan Giggs, and I know it’s seems minor, but Ashley Cole gets booed by fans, and still does, for his infidelities. I Don’t seem to hear any for Mr Giggs when he takes the field, but I suppose shagging your sister in law is not deemed as that serious.

I would also say that the way in which JT’s father was fitted up for “drug dealing” was pretty shady work by the NOTW. It wouldn’t be too hard to find a member of a footballer’s family who may use recreational drugs, befriend them in a pub, ask if they know somebody who might “sort them out” and then expose them as a “drug dealer”. Whilst there are certainly questions of morality regarding said transaction I would say that the representation of JT’s father as drug dealer was misleading in the extreme. As a background it’s worth noting that most drug dealers (the gramme or two of cocaine in the pub type, not the million pound import/export variety) do not make a great deal of money. I simply do not believe JTs family are that hard-up that his father would be selling drugs to strangers for minimal profit. Whilst I wouldn’t condone his fathers actions I would be more concerned about the predatory entrapment practices used by the now defunct NOTW. The same trick was used on Jodie Kidd I believe. Another example of someone who would have no financial need to involve themselves in low-level, high-risk, unprofitable drug dealing.

Another PL footballer’s father is a known Heroin/Crack cocaine addict who lives in a crack house frequented by prostitutes. Quite rightly this player has never been vilified by association but rather treated with some sympathy regarding the difficulty of the situation. His profile though is not on the same level as JT’s. That’s what everything boils down to in the media. Making headlines that make money. Regardless of the implications. That’s why journalists and editors never thought they may be involved in something unspeakably unsavory when they were hacking Milly Dowler’s phone or if they did they simply didn’t care enough not to do it. It rather begs the question “which journalist is qualified to judge a footballer’s morality?”

Yes, Fiftee, exactly after this cross! It was an utter rubbish what did he try to do? What the fuck was that? First touch, second touch is the shoot! What did he think that Man U going to give him all the time on the planet to play with a ball? AVB – followed the script of Sir Red Nose instead of changing the rhythm of the game! Man U takes defender and brings Paul Scholes, so they want to attack. What AVB does he is inviting attack by taking off Sturridge and brings holding midfielder!! Three goals lead…………..

When Romeu came on it was a1 goal lead. and when we went all out attack vs Arsenal AVB got slaughtered.

Let’s get this straight, AVB was not to blame for today. The penalties were soft and dismally wrong respectively. Ivan, who was world class, failed to close Giggs down before he crossed for the equaliser but wouldn’t have had to had Malouda not stupidly given the ball away 30 seconds before on the edge of the Man utd box.

Torres DID bottle it, and someone needs to help him out. Bring back Zola to coach him I say. But he ran fucking miles today, beat evans so many times to the ball and controlled it from clearances. And he spotted the position of Mata and picked him out superbly. The lack of goals is an issue, but for me, it’s just a mata of time (see what i did there?

I was going to post something positive, Tony, but couldn’t find the time because I saw too many toys being thrown out of the pram, and I didn’t want to pick them up.
Quite agree with you, Torres gets slated because he didn’t shoot first time, his only poor choice perhaps throughout the game, the rest of his play had everything bar a goal. Yes I know he’s a £50 million quid striker, so he should be scoring, but that cross to Mata was sublime, as was the finish.

On to Utd’s MOTM… the figure that Daytripper mentioned 17% of Webb’s penalty awards. I read on some article or report last night, I forget where. Out of 54 penalties he’s awarded in the PL 9 have been given to Utd, more than any other referee.

The second penalty was the game changer, and virtually guaranteed in my opinion that Utd would get at least a point out of the game, so the 3rd goal was no surprise to me.

We also missed our little Brazilian in midfield yesterday, his constant running, especially late on in the game would have caused Utd allsorts of problems, and just might have made the difference in our favour.

And as for any Utd fans who still bang on about not getting any decisions in games against us, the last 6 we’ve played have been very generous in their favour, so I would say we’re more than even now.

Yes, Torres does a good work…. of midfielder, but he has to score (I omit to start). And this cross from Ivanovich… oh dear, or should I say doesn’t mata 🙂 ? Now regarding AVB, when team looses three goals advantage the blame is on manager in 99% of the cases. Arsenal and Man U are different teams and strategies applied should be different.

Apparently 17% of all penalties awarded by Howard Webb in the Premiership have been in favour of Man Utd. I would be interested to know if that statistic is correct. He could just as easily have been Tom Henning Ovrebo this afternoon

Yes it was very disappointing, but there were quite a few positives I thought. Gary Cahill was very good, as was Luiz for the most part. Now that Essien is back, I feel AVB is more comfortable with playing a 4231, and it looked very good. If that’s the way forward, we will be alright. We won’t concede two penalties every match (with the second one looking very dodgy and Pires-like), and if it weren’t for that wonder save at the end we could have won. We looked scared when Man Utd got the initiative, but that’s what we’ve been like all season. Hopefully that will improve with form.

I feel pretty down about it, but I feel that after letting it sink in people will see some positives about today.

Yes, I am one of them seeing the positives. The only stinker was Malouda again. Can’t pass, can’t tackle, won’t backtrack, bottles tackles, no pace. Lazy Utter Cunt.

Ivan was world class but for the error in letting Giggs cross for the 3rd Man Utd goal.

Bosingwa had a better game at left back than Ashley Cole has for 3 or 4 months.

Tores did bottle it, but the pass to Mata was wonderful and actually being at the game Torres played well but for the last 10 minutes when he was patently knackered.

Studge should have stayed on and Malouda taken off. AVB’s only mistake because the fuckwits calling or AVB’s head are WRONG. The same team that was winning 3-0 was the same team that conceded the penalties. I’ve seen the re-run and no complaint about the first, but the second was a fucking disgrace.

Meireles was poor again. Seems to be on the slide.

Essien was told to go forward by Romeu when he came on, but somehow both him and Mata ignored Scholes. Scholes could have had a party in a marquee such was the space he was given in midfield.

Luiz was magnificent, as was Mata. Sturridge looked greedy and interested. Good that’s when he’s at his best.

Finally for some comment. Gary Cahill. Not the captain but by God did he marshall the back 4 well, constantly ordering positions and even berating Luiz on his only poor clearance. I think we have our next captain in the wings….

It’s
a frustrating game for sure. Don’t know if it was because I was sleepy or
whatever but there was a part of me that was actually happy during the
game. I was glad to have my old Chelsea back, the Chelsea of before
Abramovich even. Where we’d score spectacular goals and entertain but had
this frailty that you never knew when it was going to go all to shit. I
saw Mata like Zola, Luiz like Lebouef, Torres like Flo!

So much better game to watch than the dire games served up against Swansea and Norwich recently

In a more realistic assessment
of the game, we were somewhat lucky to go in ahead at half time, I thought we
looked dangerous at times especially when moving the ball quickly. Giggs
was a major weakness in the United midfield which we should have exploited
more. Torres played amazingly well, doing so much good work linking the
play and was pretty much everywhere. Tie between him, Mata and Bosingwa
as man of the match for me.

Unfortunately, I think Romeu was
very disappointing when he came on as a sub to replace Sturridge, he gave the
ball away too many times and was caught out as well. I didn’t see the
first penalty, the second one was kind of soft but in real time it looked like
a penalty to me. Ivanovic hung a leg out and even though he was trying to
pull it back it was still there.

Didn’t see the game since I had tickets for Comedy of Errors at the National [insert own jokes here, and don’t forget your coats on the way out].

It must have been gut-twistingly frustrating not to win — but aren’t there quite a few positives here?

It’s becoming increasingly clear that in Mata and Crazy David we have two of the best young players in England. Romeu’s form has dipped but there’s not much doubt that he’s got what it takes to be superb too. Studge at his best is a beast.